What's in a Name?

[MGoelz]

I believe that you should keep your name. Anyone that is in FIRST and has come across your team will recognize you as 1501 THRUST. They go together. If you take them apart you cause confusion and the possibiliby of actually going unrecognized. I admire your team and I do not associate any negative connotations with it.

Personally, I think that the students on your team should be stronger than those small-minded people who are making fun of something that is going to bring out the best of the kids on the team. Changing your name is succumbing to their immature antics. Please help your team members to rise above the negative connotation comments and see that being in FIRST and being on team 1501, on Team THRUST, is an honor.

The members on your team are there for a reason. They want to indulge themselves in a world of math, science, and technology, and learn skills to prepare them for careers in those types of fields. Their friends or peers should be proud of what they are accomplishing. They should be jealous. They should want to be involved themselves. Those people are not worth changing your name over.

Rise above the immature people who need some sort of self-control over what comes out of their mouths.
Keep your name.

[whytheheckme]

FIRST doesn't not call game pieces 'balls' because of the connotation that could imply. I've never even played in a competition with Team THRUST, but I still know who they are by name (through conversation with FIRST folk, and these forums.)

Please, keep your name, and more importantly, your identity.

-Jacob

[Steve Wherry]

Anyone involved in FIRST should be looking for an engineering connection...if someone is looking at your name in a dirty way, then they need to get a new hobby and leave FIRST to those of us who are mature enough to handle it.

You have a very secure identity...Don't change your name!

[Kevyn H.]

As an ex-member of THRUST, I have a couple comments to make....


First of all, I would NEVER wear my shirt to school, unless it was a day before a competition or we were doing a demo, and the whole team would wear our shirts. Was I proud of being on the team? Of course! I loved every second of it. However, it was just not worth the trouble. The first time I wore it, I was getting comments left and right. "Haha, you're on team THRUST, thats hilarious!" Not worth it....I didn't feel like dealing with idiots.

Second, for some reason, the school robotics team was completely under-the-radar. I still have people saying either "We had a robotics team?" or "yeah, I think I've heard of you". Maybe if the team had a little more respect within the school, people would take our name more seriously. We are still the stereotypical nerdy robotics team to our fellow high-schoolers, so our name is just another way for them to laugh at us.

However....I would not change it. For the people that do respect the team, it would be a pain to change it, since we are recognized as THRUST. We already had to go through a bad situation a few years back by switching from 535 to 1501, but I won't go into that. I just don't want that same type of thing to happen again. We should keep the name, keep the theme, and keep doing what we do.

[roboticsguy1988]

As a former student on the team and now a mentor, i do know the comments that Kevyn is talking about. However i still say it should not be changed.

If anything the acronym "Thundering Herd of Robots Using Student Thinking" should be advertised more. Make it so thats what people see first and then they see THRUST after it.

I remember being on G-Force and people still made bad comments about that name just like they do with THRUST, I'll admit it was not near as easy for them to arrive to that, but i still heard bad comments on G-Force.

As one of the students that went through the hard times in robotics when 535 dissipated and 1501 was started i do not believe it is worth changing the name. We have built a great reputation as it is. Besides if we change the name this time then when students in the future don't like the new name, they will say well you let the students before change it.

Like i said in an email to Chris, it is like a company or school changing their name. It just does not happen very often, and when it does bad things can come out of it. For example the university i am attending decided to change their name and they don't admit the following but never the less it is true, they have lost tons of money from donors and alumni, why because there is no point in changing a name when it has a great reputation already built.

I'll admit i did not vote for this name in the beginning, but yet it was still a fair vote between mentors and students and the name won. Since the name has grown on me and built its reputation, DO NOT CHANGE IT.

Sorry for the half way long post.

[Herodotus]

In truth I have a fairly dirty mind, and yet I've never put any negative connotations on the name THRUST, probaly has to do with the fact that I'm an aviation enthusiast(and soon to be pilot in training) so there are more positive connotations to the name. I agree with everyone else on the topic, don't change it because of the immaturity of someone else.

[cooker52]

roboticsguy, the only thing you should be sorry for is that I can't quote what you and kevyn both said without making this post a page long.

As not only a member of the team, but also the student leader, I believe in keeping the name. But to me, the main importance in keeping the name is the marketing. Everyone already knows the name and we just keep adding to it. The main issue is that at school, there are always those kids who will make fun of the name. I don't believe that's any reason for changing the name. My philosophy is to ignore it.

Once we step to the level of changing the theme, never in my life will I allow it to change. For the past four years, our mentors have dedicated thousands of hours in showing us the unique skills. More on topic of the theme, our engineering methods that we use flow right into the theme of our team. And more importantly, the man that brought these techniques into our team spent the last of his years making sure that he passed on his knowledge and experience. Not only was our theme based off of our engineering style, but it was also in honor of our mentor.

To me, changing our theme is to dishonor our mentors who've worked with us for so long for something they believe in and more importantly, would be like us saying to the mentor who spent his last few good years with us, that his efforts were nice, but we are ready to move on.

That's why I believe we should keep our theme.

The name comes with the package. So, it I believe it should stay, too.

Cooker52

[ksnabl]

I just joined the team this past year and I've heard both sides of the argument. What I first thought about the name was that there wasn't alot of "student thinking" going into the project. There were only ever a couple of students that I could go to who actually knew what was going on... I for one didn't think about the "negative connotation" yet I still didn't really care for the name.

And with the issue that our changing of our name "would be like us saying to the mentor who spent his last few good years with us, that his efforts were nice, but we are ready to move on" is not at all true. The students I've talked to want to keep his aviation theme going, and cooker52, if we never changed things that people in the past had established (such as our team name) we would still be fighting with swords, using dial phones, etc. and basically progress could never be accomplished.

Final Note: If we are a thundering herd of robotics using STUDENT thinking, the students should be the ones deciding if they feel comfortable with the name or not... not how popular we have become. Like some people said, they recognize us as 1501 not THRUST anyhoo

[Molten]

Kayla, I must disagree with you on many levels. Wal-mart(though I despise the store) has evolved greatly and they have never changed their name. Had they changed their name 10 years ago it would have been crippling to them. It would not be the end of them, but it would slow down their progress. Also, how is changing the name not "moving on". I may not be on the team, but I certainly think that by changing the name it will be taking you a step back. People won't remember your name and it adds to confusion. You will lose some of the reputation that you have gained from those who have passed. It is highly disrespectful to them to change the name. It is like you are removing a mark that they made on the team.
Story: I live in a town that was once run by a factory called Arvins. Then, Arvins changed it's name to ArvinMeritor(due to it being bought). Now, it is called EMCON(once again bought). Now, if someone is interested in buying mufflers from Arvins, they have to go through the trouble of figuring out that Arvins is now EMCON. Arvins, now EMCON, has had a major loss in buyers due to this.

Also, I will never remember teams like THRUST by their number. The number 1501 does not do the team justice. It is known to my team and always will be as THRUST.

One last thing, you make an analogy to that "if we never changed things that people in the past had established (such as our team name) we would still be...using dial phones". We have come a long way with our technology. We went from the dial phones you are speaking of to cell phones. But do you notice something? They are both called "phones". Why? Because it was easier and better then changing the name.

If you want to add onto the current name, that is fine. Just don't replace it. I, for one, would be offended if 1766 changed it's name from 'Temper Metal'. There is a story behind the name to be told. It allows the new members to know who we are among the FIRST comunity. We are Temper Metal.

[AndyB]

I think of 1501 as THRUST. I call them THRUST and tend to only use 1501 if the person I'm talking to doesn't understand. Team names tend to stick out more than team numbers.

Keep the name.

[JudyVandy]

OK, my 2 cents worth...

Chuck 84 has changed it's name a few times in the past. Initially we started as SWATT, an acronym from the first letters of the schools involved, and then went to WATTNESS, another acronym for the schools involved. All the while, we were best know by our robot's name, Chuck (aka Chuck R2, Chuck Pi, C IV, etc.). We soon realized we had to keep things standardized, because our identity as a team was confusing to other teams. So, we adopted Chuck 84 as the team name, from our robot an our team number, and our robot was just Chuck. It took a few years for things to catch on with other teams, but the recognition factor has taken hold and we are recognized in our area.

When you change your name, you do lose a bit of your identity for a while, but it does come back. There will be a year or two lf, 'Who are they?' You just have to decide if it's a big enough issue or not and if the end result is worth it.

[Jack Murphy]

I’ve thought about this for a couple of days. IMHO, Listen to your team. Wearing a team shirt should never be a dilemma.

As a longtime BSA leader I know how difficult peer pressure is to deal with. It’s a shame that we sometimes have to deal with the lowest common denominator.


How about if you just lose the Herd? We’ll still know you.

TRUST

[Andy Baker]

This is a tough situation. 1501 has built a good reputation within the FIRST community, but the team name puts some of the kids through some grief at home (how much grief is this... that is a significant point) There are various factors in a team name. Teams will continue to be successful in FIRST regardless of the fact they change their names.

Sure, your image and reputation within the FIRST community is important, but how does that compare to your image and reputation within your community and school?

The decision is between building upon the Team THRUST name within the FIRST community (keeping the name) and starting a new identity that may be more inclusive of the Huntington schools or area.

If I were voting, I would say that your immediate community is more important to the FIRST community. We (the FIRST community) can adjust to you making changes that may be better for your community image.

Do what you need to do... let us know if you change your name, and we will still admire you.

Andy B.

ps... this is from a guy who helped people start G-Force back in the fall of 2000, and knows how small-town Indiana works.

[Alan Anderson]

I'm having a hard time understanding the problem with the name THRUST. I'll accept that there is one, but I just don't see how it could be that big of a deal. I would imagine that the people doing the teasing would find some way to poke fun at the team no matter what it's name is.

Originally Posted by Jack Murphy

How about if you just lose the Herd? We’ll still know you.

TRUST

Definitely keep the Thundering, though.

[JaneYoung]

The team name -
Andy's pretty much nailed some of my thoughts.

I like the suggested idea that Jack made - of removing the H which forms the word, Trust.

Team TRUST.

There are a lot of things you can do with that, all positive.

An aside: I absolutely loved the name Team THRUST when I heard it the first time. I thought of all of those times I sat in front of our TV, watching Mr. Cronkite marvel at the wonders of aviation and of rocket power, space exploration, orbits, and moon landings and some of the language we were all being introduced to as we listened.

That said, if the team suffers to the point that one of our valued mentors creates a poll in CD to see what our thoughts are, then we had better pay attention to the wisdom of Andy Baker as well.

Edit: Alan posted while I was writing...Thundering TRUST...wow.